WBO #6 middleweight HyeFighter Gennady Martirosyan (20-2, 9 KOs) retained his WBO Europe title for the first time after a hard-fought stoppage of comebacking French veteran Aziz Daari (24-13-4, 20 KOs) on Saturday night at the Atmosphere Night Club in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Martirosyan didn’t show his usual aggressiveness but preferred to fight in Abraham-like style by boxing in spurts and covering in a shell-like defense for the rest of the time. Bigger and stronger Daari gave Martirosyan some scary moments in the midst of the fight when it seemed Gennady was gassing out quickly. He, however, found some intrinsic resources and increased his tempo after the seventh round. Round eight was all Martirosyan; in the ninth stanza Daari charged forward and had some mild success which proved to be his last stand in the bout. In round ten, Martirosyan marched forward and finally landed a huge left uppercut, which forced the Frenchman down after a few more blows on accumulation of punches. Heavily bleeding, Daari wobblingly stood up and survived the round only to retire on his stool during the break.